Nitehawk Cinema workers rally for first contract

Since unionizing in 2024, employees at Nitehawk Cinema’s Prospect Park branch have been bargaining for a first contract that would increase worker safety conditions, hourly pay and healthcare benefits; concerns which have yet to be met by management.

On March 13, Nitehawk workers and allies employees gathered in front of the theater’s Prospect Park location to demand attention to the contract, which workers argue has been at a standstill for almost two years due to stalling and bad faith negotiating on part of the owners. 

“They do the legal bare minimum,” argued Lydia DeKok, a Nitehawk bartender and one of the original union organizers who began working at the independent cinema chain in 2023. “Some of the biggest things that we’ve been asking for since the beginning are substantial hourly raises for everyone in the building. Our boss's reaction to that was that we were trying to bankrupt him.”

Nitehawk Prospect Park is represented by Local 2179 of the United Auto Workers, which also represents workers at Alamo Drafthouse and Cinema Village, local cinemas that have been part of the surge in unionizing over similar workplace concerns in local movie theaters within the past couple of years. 

Recently, Alamo Drafthouse announced a QR-code shift from the theater’s traditional pen and paper ordering system taken by servers, which has caused backlash from both customers and employees. The new program is expected to go live this week according to Jordan Baruch, an Alamo employee and union member who spoke at the Nitehawk rally. 

“Alamo’s director of operations, Kelly Bondley, has admitted that we will lose hours over this,” said Baruch. “I hope that today's rally shows you that Nitehawk and Alamo are not the cool progressive companies that they pretend to be.” 

Nitehawk management did not respond to a request for comment.

Among the attendees at the rally was Brad Lander, a former New York City Comptroller who is running for a seat in Congress. 

“It takes a lot of courage to form a union, to organize, to say we're going to make some demands, to insist on being paid better in a workplace,” Lander told rally-goers. 

“While our union is vital to our struggles for health care, fair, pay and workplace safety, the power of the United Community affects far beyond the walls of Nitehawk,” said Thursdae Sierocki, a server at Nitehawk.  “There was a time when unions were the backbone of our country. They're the reason we have a weekend. They're the reason we have child labor laws. They're the reason a lot of us even have the right to work. Unions have always been a part of broader community struggle.” 

Despite a standstill in negotiations, DeKok doesn’t expect a strike anytime soon, mostly out of fear that doing so could result in blowback from owners who they claim do not take union employees' jobs seriously. 

“This is not an easy job. It is incredibly physically and mentally taxing, having to deal not only with the complications of a large independent movie theater, but also a bar and restaurant on top of that. This is one of the things that has been the most frustrating since bargaining with our bosses,” said DeKok. “Matthew [Viragh] has repeatedly stated that this is just a serving job.” 

Workers urge supporters to sign their petition and continue supporting the theater despite the disputes between workers and management.

“We do still want people to come to the theater, because this is a business where people’s tips pay most of the paychecks of our coworkers,” DeKok told The Chief.